Ok I got the shifter from chevy today, and installed it! I made sure I didnt over tighten or cross thread the bolts. I used loctite and made all the bolts snug. The lower box swap was fairly easy and went well. At first I didnt tighten the linkage collar fully and the linkage shaft had a slight amount of play in it. I put everything back and felt the shofter had about 1" of play from side to side. I was saying to myself "this doesnt feel right" so I took it all apart again to investigate and noticed the collar bolt needed to be a bit tighter to squeeze the shaft. I fixed the problem and I must say the shifter feels much snugger, tighter and newer. The shifts feel more like butter (I am guessing beacause of the new bushings). I will take it apart in a week and see if the bolts are loosening up, and if they arent I will know that they most likley wont loosen at all. Whew, hopefully I permanantly fixed this problem.

Sorry I didnt snap any pics of the install process, I wanted to focus more on the task at hand rather than stoping to snap pics. Thanks for all your help, comments and info!

 

Glad your up and running again, hope this is the end of your issue, sounds like all should be well at this point. Enjoy the ride!!!!

 

Better stick with the automatic then.
Way less problems.

 

I got the time-sert repair kit in the mail the other day and I decided to keep it just incase. I also tried to repair/practice on the old shifter box just for ***** and giggles. Now I did it kind of quickly just to get used to it, but I must say I am glad I opted to install a completely new box instead of repairing the old one. The shavings from the aluminum was alot and if I did this thing while still in the car all that stuff would have been falling down into the tunnel and all, (didnt want shavings all over my interior). Not only that you have to really keep the drill straight when you drill out the alum, the slightest pitch would make the insert go in on a slight angle (it happened to one of them). Of course its still useable but it looks a little ghetto but then again that is why I opted to practice on the old box. I also didnt use a tap guide when drilling to assure it being straight. I just wanted to share this with anyone who might have this problem or come across this problem that it may be more logical to just swap the box out for a new one. Secondly if the bushings on your old box are worn, repairing the old box is even more silly since you have to remove the old box to replace the bushings anyway. Another thing I wanted to point out is that the linkage where the shifter mounts into also has rubber gaskets that do wear after a while.

Its been a week since I replaced it and I think I might open the center console again just to check that all the bolts are still secure and locked into place.

Peter